Quick tip #40 – Use Japanese Support…Everywhere

I’ve recently started on my 7th marketplace, and so have had my fair share of support staff with less knowledge of Amazon than the average potato. The interesting thing I’ve noticed is how the rarer the language, the better the support is.

The worst support is easily the US. No offence to the Filipino support; they have a tough job talking with stressed out sellers, but their knowledge is somewhat, er, shall we say, “shallow”. I’ve heard it’s good to catch the US support times, for native support, but I haven’t been lucky enough yet.

The 2nd worst is the UK, for the same reasons as above. But when you get one of the South African staff, the clouds part, the sun shines, and everything is great in the world.

Now the German support is, well, German efficiency personified. They are amazing. I particularly love the way they respond to, “Do you speak English?”, with “i’m very sorry, my English is terrible, but I will try my best.” And then they proceed to speak perfect English for the whole technical conversation. Every time. Without fail. I love the Germans. You see, German support has to be done by native Germans. I assume they are paid better, stay longer, and actually gain a knowledge of Amazon.

But the point of this post is the Japanese support. I know many will disagree, but I think they are great. If they don’t know the answer, they really try to find it for you.

But even this isn’t the point of the post. I’ve just opened a US account and as I’m sure you all know, talking to support is like extracting knowledge from a…what did I say before?…oh…a potato.

But I have the SOLUTION! Contact them in Japanese
Seriously, it’s amazing! You get responses that not only make sense, but are….wait for it….correct! I’ve been doing it by email recently, but may try it by phone too with my next problem. So if you speak Japanese, give it a go.

I would guess that the other languages they support in the US will also be way better than the over-worked English support.